Do "Shared" stats lag behind those shown on post?

When I look at my Shared stats, the post titled “Crimea and the Clancy Coincidence” has only been shared 7 times. Yet if I look at the post itself, it shows 5 shares on Twitter and 95 on Facebook, a total of 100. So which is correct, the 7 or the 100? And why the difference. If the 7 is the result of some lag in compilation, how long is the lag? The numbers on the post have been a lot higher than 7 for quite a few days.

I read that explanation or something similar on the share stats page. Several times, actually. Are you saying that the Share buttons (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) on my blog can be clicked somewhere other than on my blog, and that WordPress only counts them when someone clicks them while on my blog? Where else could someone be clicking them? How can someone share my blog without doing it with the Share buttons on my blog?

I’m sorry to be so dense, but I don’t do social networking and have little understanding of how those networks function.

So WP only counts when the posts are shared (ie, buttons are clicked) on my blog.

But my posts can be shared among Facebook users, for example, without those Facebook users ever coming to my blog? And the buttons on my blog somehow count and include those shares in the totals they display?

@timethief Thanks. If you don’t get it either, then I don’t feel so bad.

Like I said, the buttons are showing the shares of your post’s URL on Facebook, Twitter, etc. that go beyond our own stats, which count when people actually use the buttons to share the content. So if someone links to your post on Facebook without using the Share button, it would show up there.